CAPUT MENTULAE
STATEMENT
Alex Zaro’s process continues to advance by continually pushing boundaries and crossing over into new fields. His works are realised in different media: video, performance art, sound art, light art, sculpture, design and painting.
Site specific works, therefore, are laid out in successive layers.
The materials used for his works come forth from a machine-like process, in which we can catch glimpses of the desire to invert the semantics of the process itself.
While viewing Alex Zaro’s works we are drawn into a kind of spatial-temporal migration; and kind of “sweet exile” in lands that although they offer no hint of comfort or consolation, work well as devices. Devices capable of inducing mental and physical activities as well as the psychological and alienating, which can be traced to the possibility of the existence of the unexplored, at least in terms of the methods used.
“CAPUT MENTULAE”
With “caput mentulae” I wanted to venture into the dynamic flow typical of the kind of power struggle or fencing match or deception that takes place between two people, whether of the opposite sex or the same sex in a complex, but not in a psychological manner.
Whenever I try to interpret a theme, I not only try to do so artistically, but also in a way that leaves a certain mystery, a veil that keeps at least a part of it hidden. So once again I find myself examining the concept of control in the development of different themes, while at the same time looking at the notion of “non-control”. I believe that the construction of a sculpture is a sort of epiphany that has little or nothing to do with a conscious objective.
The “Tower” section of the sculpture, the part that supplies the central point of our perspective, is made using layers of etching paper.
The various shaped pieces, about 1,000 of them, are layered vertically – cut and pasted and built-up geometrically to express the images-sensations this theme inspired in me; for example, attraction-repulsion, expansion-implosion, generosity-greed, intelligence-stupidity etc.,.
The dynamic is anti-conventional, resonant and I would say more translucent than transparent… as if it were a surface that you can either picture yourself reflected in or glance through depending on the angle of the light as it strikes the piece; this gradient is the building block used to construct what I call “the crossing space” situated at the centre of the Tower. This crossing space ends in a bridge-like element which is useful from a structural standpoint, but is almost indispensable if we want to avoid putting the geometry of the piece under a microscope and use our human perception to contemplate the opportunity it offers to sidestep the abyss.
At a certain point, not at its summit, but in that precise spot where energy and tension and the vertical gradient deprives us of all our normal references, the Tower gives us a hypothetical, peripheral point at which everything that happens is at its most marginal, we find two, screw-in elements that host above them, two figures.
When I made the copper wire men, I had no preconceptions about who they were: at a sound effect level, initially I was thinking about a fencing match between the two, but at the same time I thought about the interaction between a man and a woman. In the end it was clear to me that the figures were a man and a woman, however this did not determine the kind of sound solution I created.
As in the case of the other elements, the smaller towers – which support the two speakers - are a response to the need to find a counterpoint to the dynamics of the theme. Furthermore the speaker-towers form one half of a geometric dialogue with the stepped parts of the mobile, central element.
This mobile, central element, or at least this potentially mobile element, has five wheels; the largest, the central wheel, acts as a fulcrum, like the fulcrum of a child’s swing – it goes up or down at the sides. Perhaps this wheel also provides a reflection of the other four.
The oval element, which supports various parts of the sculpture, has a gap situated at the widest point of its diameter, a channel that houses the wiring for the sound system. This lead becomes a link between the two warring sides.
We could, therefore, talk about loving attention to detail. I have always enjoyed focusing on the details of a piece; it appears to me that such an approach speaks of a desire to ‘court’ the infinite when the infinite is a category encompassing all that is possible, including the impossible.
CAPUT MENTULAE
hand made paper, wood, aluminium, copper wire, wheels, loudspeakers, power amplifier, sd player
170 x 98 x 85
2012
Alex Zaro’s process continues to advance by continually pushing boundaries and crossing over into new fields. His works are realised in different media: video, performance art, sound art, light art, sculpture, design and painting.
Site specific works, therefore, are laid out in successive layers.
The materials used for his works come forth from a machine-like process, in which we can catch glimpses of the desire to invert the semantics of the process itself.
While viewing Alex Zaro’s works we are drawn into a kind of spatial-temporal migration; and kind of “sweet exile” in lands that although they offer no hint of comfort or consolation, work well as devices. Devices capable of inducing mental and physical activities as well as the psychological and alienating, which can be traced to the possibility of the existence of the unexplored, at least in terms of the methods used.
“CAPUT MENTULAE”
With “caput mentulae” I wanted to venture into the dynamic flow typical of the kind of power struggle or fencing match or deception that takes place between two people, whether of the opposite sex or the same sex in a complex, but not in a psychological manner.
Whenever I try to interpret a theme, I not only try to do so artistically, but also in a way that leaves a certain mystery, a veil that keeps at least a part of it hidden. So once again I find myself examining the concept of control in the development of different themes, while at the same time looking at the notion of “non-control”. I believe that the construction of a sculpture is a sort of epiphany that has little or nothing to do with a conscious objective.
The “Tower” section of the sculpture, the part that supplies the central point of our perspective, is made using layers of etching paper.
The various shaped pieces, about 1,000 of them, are layered vertically – cut and pasted and built-up geometrically to express the images-sensations this theme inspired in me; for example, attraction-repulsion, expansion-implosion, generosity-greed, intelligence-stupidity etc.,.
The dynamic is anti-conventional, resonant and I would say more translucent than transparent… as if it were a surface that you can either picture yourself reflected in or glance through depending on the angle of the light as it strikes the piece; this gradient is the building block used to construct what I call “the crossing space” situated at the centre of the Tower. This crossing space ends in a bridge-like element which is useful from a structural standpoint, but is almost indispensable if we want to avoid putting the geometry of the piece under a microscope and use our human perception to contemplate the opportunity it offers to sidestep the abyss.
At a certain point, not at its summit, but in that precise spot where energy and tension and the vertical gradient deprives us of all our normal references, the Tower gives us a hypothetical, peripheral point at which everything that happens is at its most marginal, we find two, screw-in elements that host above them, two figures.
When I made the copper wire men, I had no preconceptions about who they were: at a sound effect level, initially I was thinking about a fencing match between the two, but at the same time I thought about the interaction between a man and a woman. In the end it was clear to me that the figures were a man and a woman, however this did not determine the kind of sound solution I created.
As in the case of the other elements, the smaller towers – which support the two speakers - are a response to the need to find a counterpoint to the dynamics of the theme. Furthermore the speaker-towers form one half of a geometric dialogue with the stepped parts of the mobile, central element.
This mobile, central element, or at least this potentially mobile element, has five wheels; the largest, the central wheel, acts as a fulcrum, like the fulcrum of a child’s swing – it goes up or down at the sides. Perhaps this wheel also provides a reflection of the other four.
The oval element, which supports various parts of the sculpture, has a gap situated at the widest point of its diameter, a channel that houses the wiring for the sound system. This lead becomes a link between the two warring sides.
We could, therefore, talk about loving attention to detail. I have always enjoyed focusing on the details of a piece; it appears to me that such an approach speaks of a desire to ‘court’ the infinite when the infinite is a category encompassing all that is possible, including the impossible.
CAPUT MENTULAE
hand made paper, wood, aluminium, copper wire, wheels, loudspeakers, power amplifier, sd player
170 x 98 x 85
2012
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